Soft and hazy Amber in color, this brew is a typical american Amber ale. Fruity and slightly sweet. Earthy hops are notable in the taste and the beer has a medium body. Reasonably good, but not exceptional. (209 characters)

Truly a pleasant surprise! Wasn't expecting to enjoy this one as much as I did.

Pours a deep golden hue, with a fuzzy kind of haze that yet retains clarity. Beautiful head rolls upward as I pour and sticks around for a bit, dissipating into a nice crown with dregs of lacing sticking to the side. Impressive for the style.

The aromas are all sweet and malty, but crisp. Sweet bread and grain, with some something pretty... a little off-floral, without being identifiable. Yeast and rising bread.

The taste follows the nose, with cracker, fresh-baked doughy bread, yeasty goodness, and some mild fruity and flowery notes to round things out. Bitterness is present in the very back of this picture, just barely being present enough to support the rest of this composition. Sweet on the front, with some subtle bitterness in the middle, and a long sweet, bready finish. Just when you think the ensemble is all sweet, a mild but noticable bitter punch hits you in the very back of your throat, as if to say "notice me; there's more to me than just that".

Mouthfeel is medium, a little on the lighter side, very much like a lager or a pilsner, yet with some extra tooth added by the creaminess of a robust carbonation. Smooth; so very smooth.

Overall, I'm loving this brew. My final opinion can be summed up quite succinctly: MMmmm, Beer! If there were such a thing as a generic, but quintessential beer, at least toward the American experience, this would be it. The style taken to its proper place. (1,505 characters)

A clear and deep coppery color with a translucency due only to the color, this beer struggles to maintain a wispy head that sinks down to foam with strong edging and achieves decent spotting.As similar as can be in aroma and flavor, this pale ale is moderately hoppy with a focus on earth, leaf and mineral notes that make me wonder if it isn't an English version. A hint of estery sweetness comes up at the front and gives way to the bitterness, while a bit more flora comes out from middle to end.It's more prickly than crisp and bitingly so. Its light-medium body holds a certain mineral edge to it. (604 characters)

A: The beer is a dark gold color, with a short foamy white head that fades slowly and leaves a very thick lace on the glass.

S: The aroma contains caramelized malts, citrus, honey and some hops.

T: The taste starts out bready with a hearty malt character up front. Then some sweetness comes in from flavors of caramel, honey and citrus. The hops presence is strong but not over-powering and brings a decent balance. The after-taste is slightly bready and slightly sweet.

O: Tasty, goes down easily, not too filling, mild kick, good representation of style even though it seems to lean more toward the English Pale Ale style, this is a solid beer to drink for a while. (809 characters)

T - Light and bright initially, followed by a strong wave of back-of-the-throat malts, including caramel, butter, and a bit of a liquorice flavor. Hops are fairly mild, showing pine. Some earthy woodiness. Interesting flavor profile, but not my cup of tea (beer). Taste follows aroma pretty closely.

M - Extremely light and lager-ish. Makes for a quick drink, which is good for this style. Very little oily hop residue, little carbonation sting, no sense of alcohol (of which there shouldn't be, at 5.0%).

O - This seems like an experimental flavor, with some pine hops and a huge malt character, all in a light-bodied ale. It's not a bad beer, but I wouldn't dream of making it my everyday ale. (1,000 characters)

An excellent British-style ale, but classed as "American" I’m unable to rate it as highly as I'd like. It's balanced and very well brewed, but extremely malt forward and completely lacking in any of the hop notes that are crucial (in my mind) to an APA.

Good looking golden colour with amber tones, decent white head and attractive lacing. Aroma of pale malts, breads and grains. The flavour is also very malt-forward, biscuits with bittering hops to round out the finish. Unfortunately no citrus, fruit or "c" hop or other "west-coast" elements - but a decently dry and lingering finish.

All in all, a great SPA, but not a beer I'd recommend to someone seeking an APA. (673 characters)

We pour a brew of robust golden yellow. It holds a two finger head of creamy whitish bubbles. This shows great retention, leaving thick sheets of lacing down the glass. There is a chill haze to it, with no sediment noted. Carbonation is robustly active. The nose shows metallic pale malts, and lightly adjuncty chalk. The hops to balance are floral and lemony, giving a slight pucker. With warmth comes plastic phenols, adding bitterness, and a chalky grassiness. Our first impression is that the flavoring is refreshing, but a bit on the light side. As we sip, cleanly toasted pale malts hit first, mixing with soft citric malts, and light wheatiness. Lemon juice bitterness works in, with moderate chalky dryness. The peak comes with metallics, pale malts, baker’s yeast, citric fruitiness, and bittering mineral. We finish the swallow on notes of sweeter malts, with flashes of white sugar, floral and citric hops, more chalky, plastic phenols that bounce off the ethanol, and muddy pale malts. The aftertaste breathers of booze, those muddy pale malts, chalk, plastic phenols, light metallic adjuncts, and black pepper. The body is medium, and the carbonation is full. The latter gives big froth and cream to the sip, whereas there is nice slurp and pop on the back. The mouth is wet and happy, with slightly puckering astringency by the final drop. The abv is appropriate, and the beer glugs easily.

Overall, what we enjoyed most about this beer was the cleanliness of flavoring, and the drinkability. The flavor starts freshly, with nice pale malts, and a citric hop blend. This stays true to the very end, where the malts become a bit more muddy and bittering. This really doesn’t affect drinkability that much though. Coupled with the nose and slurp, this is a great go-to pale ale, and a well-kept local secret. (1,825 characters)

A: Pours a hazy to cloudy dark golden yellow in color with some hints of orange when held up to the light. The beer has a half finger tall creamy white head that reduces to a thin film covering the entire surface of the beer and a slightly thicker ring at the edges of the glass. Moderate amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Very little discernable smell to this beer - quite mild. Very light notes of pale malts with a touch of caramel sweetness and some floral and grassy hops.

T: Similar to the smell, the overall flavor of this beer is quite mild. There are notes of pale and caramel malts with some floral and grassy hops. Light amounts of bitterness that fades quickly.

A: The beer is yellowish amber in color. It poured with a half finger high head that eventually completely faded away.S: There are light aromas of lemony and grassy hops in the nose.T: Like the smell, the taste is lemony and has flavors of grassy hops. Not much in the way of bitterness is detectable.M: It feels medium-bodied on the palate and has a moderate amount of carbonation.O: Nothing really stands out in this beer as being very interesting, but it is a beer that goes down quite easily. (536 characters)

Appearance - Clear amber/copper colour with an average size fizzy off-white coloured head. There is a low amount of carbonation showing and there is some poor lacing. The head lasted for 3 minutes before it was gone.

Smell - Malts, caramel, grapefruit

Taste & Mouth - There is a low amount of carbonation and I can taste malts, caramel and some hops. There really isn't a whole lot of flavour going on here.. it definitely doesn't have the citrus/hoppy punch that most APA's have. It really tastes like a poorly made amber if anything. It ends with a malty slightly sweet aftertaste.

Overall - Other reviewers are saying how this beer is better from a bottle. Perhaps I'll give a bottle a try if I happen to see it. As far as my glass from on tap goes, it was a really poor brew. (791 characters)

a better than average pale ale. pours a little darker than most, with a redish tint and a small white head. fruity hop aroma and modest malts in the nose, certainly more american than english in nature. taste remind me of a magic hat number 9, save the apricot. its a little bit sweet, and well carbonated. not my favorite pale ale, but a good local product. i should mention that the bottled version differs significantly from the draft, and is often much crisper and fresher. i have has some really lousy pints of this, but every bottle is good. not sure why but its true. (574 characters)

O: Goes down easy, tasty, not too filling, easy kick, decent representation of style. I prefer more hoppy APA's but this is a nice easy drinking APA that I would easily hit up again out at a bar. (676 characters)

Syracuse Pale Ale is a clear, sparkling golden ale with a sandy colored head that fades to dense, bubbly blotches that cling to the glass in thick sheets. The aroma is light, fruity and grassy; nothing overtly hoppy. It's light bodied and pretty slick. The finish is dry and crisp. The fruitiness from the aroma is kind of the main flavor here. The flavor is very light, but the malt, hops and yeast seem to contribute equally to form a single, tight taste. There is a touch of mintiness at the finish. This tastes less like a pale ale and more like an alt or maybe an Irish ale. This is an inoffensive session ale or lawnmower beer, good for drinking without thinking. (669 characters)

A - Pours a clear gold color with no head and carbonation that all but fizzled out after the first (5) minutes.

S - Light lemon and slightly herbal aroma Smells a little grainy.

T - Slightly buttery, a little lemon grainy flavoring, and a very slight citrus bitterness tries to surface but the malt beats it back down. Balanced, evenly blended across the sip, and a crisp dry finish. The overall flavor is light and not alot going on.

M - Thin, heavier side of light bodied, very gentle carbonation on the tongue that is almost slippery in texture.

O - SPA is an ale that drinks like it's more from the lager side of the beer tree. It's O.K., maybe a really good lawnmower beer on a hot summer day which isn't such a bad thing. (733 characters)

12 oz bottleA- Clear golden color, nearly no headS- pale malts and slightly mustyT- Slight mustiness has turned into a powerful caramel flavor that's just not right, there's really no hop flavor to this at all and the malt is weak.M- watery with very little carbonationO-Not a fan, I've had other Middle Ages stuff that has been quite good, but this stuff missed the mark. No freshness info, so I can't speak to how fresh it was, but I picked it up from the store last week. (479 characters)

Thanks to Kevin (shrek806) for sending me this in Round #4 of the Blind Beer BIF.

Back in the groove, at least for a moment. Popped this 12 oz. and tried to get a sniff but the xmas scented wax kept me from prying any secrets from the bottle. Poured into a Triple Karmeliet glass.

Golden yellow in color with a very thin head. Slightly perfumy in odor. Body is very light and mellow. Taste is between a pilsner and adjunct lager. This has a macro backbone with a bit of a corn creamy touch.

The reveal - Syracuse Pale Ale. More a pilsner than a pale ale in my book. Then again I found their last beer to be a bit under hopped. The beer is light and very poundable, a great lawnmower / hot day beer. (742 characters)